Notes and Queries, Number 61, December 28, 1850   By: Various

A MEDIUM OF INTER COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of." CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

NO. 61.] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28. 1850. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES: Page Illustrations of Scottish Ballads, by Richard John King 505 The Red Hand The Holt Family Vincent Family 506 Vondel's Lucifer, by Janus Dousa 507 A Myth of Midridge 509 Folk Lore Miscellanies: St. Thomas's Day Black Doll at Old Store shops Snake Charming Mice as a Medicine "Many Nits, many Pits" Swans hatched during Thunder Snakes Pixies or Piskies Straw Necklaces Breaking Judas' Bones 509 Local Rhymes and Proverbs of Devonshire 511 A Christmas Carol 513 A Note for little Boys 513 Similarity of Traditions 513 Pixey Legends 514 The Pool of the Black Hound 515 Popular Rhymes 515 Minor Notes: "Passilodion" and "Berafrynde" Inscription on an Alms dish The Use of the French Word "savez" Job's Luck The Assassination of Mountfort in For folk Street, Strand The Oldenburgh Horn Curious Custom Kite Epitaph on John Randal Playing Cards 515

QUERIES: Dragons: their Origin 517 John Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance; and Bab at the Bowster 517 Did Bunyan know Hobbes? by J.H. Friswell 518 Minor Queries: Boiling to Death Meaning of "Mocker" "Away, let nought to love displeasing" Baron Münchausen "Sing Tantararara Rogues all," &c. Meaning of "Cauking" 519

REPLIES: The Wise Men of Gotham, by J.B. Colman 520 Replies to Minor Queries: Master John Shorne Antiquity of Smoking Meaning of the Word "Thwaites" Thomas Rogers of Horninger Earl of Roscommon Parse The Meaning of "Version" First Paper mill in England "Torn by Horses" Vineyards Cardinal Weights for Weighing Coins Umbrella Croziers and Pastoral Staves 520

MISCELLANEOUS: Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 523 Notices to Correspondents 524 Advertisements 524

NOTES.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCOTTISH BALLADS.

In the ballad of "Annan Water" ( Border Minstrelsy , vol. iii.) is the following verse:

"O he has pour'd aff his dapperpy coat, The silver buttons glanced bonny; The waistcoat bursted aff his breast, He was sae full of melancholy."

A very unexpected effect of sorrow, but one that does not seem to be unprecedented. "A plague of sighing and grief," says Falstaff. "It blows a man up like a bladder."

A remarkable illustration of Falstaff's assertion, and of the Scottish ballad, is to be found in this Saga of Egil Skallagrimson . Bodvar, the son of Egil, was wrecked on the coast of Iceland. His body was thrown up by the waves near Einarsness, where Egil found it, and buried it in the tomb of his father Skallagrim. The Saga continues thus: